1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a word game system with an assembly of game components and a set of play methods for the purpose of providing mind stimulation and entertainment which can improve human brain and physical health. The game system is based on the principle of dynamically, continuously and constantly scrambling alphabets in one's brains to form meaningful words to win score, which stimulates brain activities in a healthy way. The assembly of game components is created to (1) make such brain activities to be fun and not stressful, (2) support a number of games and a variety of play methods and (3) facilitate the play methods of ‘word scramble process’ based word games. The play methods of Scramble games are applicable to a variety of board games, card games, tile games, TV broadcast shows, interactive TV games, computer games and network or online interactive computer or cell-phone based games. The game system components and play methods implemented in TV and/or interactive TV renders them a mass entertainment game with participation of audience in television, cable and Internet broadcast through remote control. In any of the playing formats, the brain stimulation function is achieved by constantly, continuously and dynamically scrambling words during the games to stimulate and improve the players' brain and physical health. The present invention and its varying play methods are suitable for solitaire play and group play in physical presence such as in a family over a table, a classroom setting as well as for a large number of players over a network connection including computer network and wireless network such as Internet, TV broadcast, cell phone network, interactive Cable TV or any combined network providing player interaction.
2. Description of the Related Art
In today's fast speed and schedule-driven work and social environment, people very much need to relax and spend time with family members and friends for both physical and mental health reasons. Consequently, many games have been invented to provide entertainment and family interaction. Unfortunately, many games are of the category that they do not stand the test of time because they don't provide the right challenge to people's brains. These are the “luck” games by throwing a die and following instructions or ‘trivia’ games causing brain clutter or the pulling-the-trigger games only stimulating finger and eye coordination with little thinking activities. In fact, some of the games are wasting precious time of young children whose brains are in the development stage which can be accelerated from healthy stimulation with proper learning games.
A few games that do endure years of test are all brain stimulating games challenging and entertaining. Examples are (1) Bridge—A English invention originated from Whist dated to 17th Century, Whist was said to come from Whisk which was called Trump, which was transformed from a French game called Triomph, (2) Chess—An invention dated back to 531 AD to India, (3) Scrabble—An American invention attributed to Alfred Butts in 1931, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., (4) Poker—traced back to Chinese 900 AD Domino cards and French 1480 Pogue card game and (5) Ma-Jong—Chinese game dated back at least 12th century and possibly earlier in simpler forms. These games stood the test of time mainly because they are both entertaining and brain stimulating and challenging. The Bridge and Chess are often contending for the throne of the most popular game in the world if one would include all card games and board games in the same category. However, they are sometimes viewed as too difficult to get young children and seniors to learn and play. Poker and Ma-jong are popular gambling games, but they are not appropriate for children to play. Word games such as Scrabble and crossword puzzles are considered learning games but they are not attracting children as much due to their play method which do not catch or have difficulty to maintain players' constant and continuous attention during the game play, especially for children.
Recently, there are clinical studies confirming the benefit of engaging brain stimulating activities for health.
Researchers have found that those who had engaged in stimulating activities throughout their life—everything from reading, doing crossword puzzles, and playing bridge, chess, or board games to visiting friends, practicing a musical instrument, and bicycling—were 2½ times less likely to get Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's disease is a mental condition that affects the portion of the brain that controls thought, memory, and language.
Brain-stimulating activities such as newspaper-reading, card games, puzzles and draughts had been shown in “the best study of the problem so far” to lower the risk of Dementia.
Human brain is like a muscle: Use it or lose it. Today's research offers evidence showing that taking steps to protect your brain can prevent a decreased memory and slowed wit. Mental exercise is crucial. It begins when parents read to their children. But it is never too late to stimulate the brain. Therefore, the general object of the present invention, collectively referred as ‘Scrammble Games’, which will become clear as a class of unique word games with descriptions below, is to provide a game system and a set of play methods for the general public, children and all ages, for the benefit of maintaining good physical and mental health. Another object is to provide family and group entertainment and learning. A number of games and their play methods are presented in the present invention.
Word Games are Created in a Particular Language.
The Scramble Games are extendable from English, an alphabetic language, such as Spanish, French, German, Russian, Arabic, or Italian and moreover are also extendable to non-alphabetical languages such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean when the non-alphabetical words are represented by a combination of symbols as a part of a small set of symbols such as radicals or when the non-alphabetical words are represented by a combination of alphabets taken from an alphabetical language or symbol system such as Zhu-Yin used in representation of Mandarin.